Hancock Shaker Village Trustees House

In examining the map, it will be noticed that dwellings are much more thickly scattered along the streets running east and west than upon those intersecting them at right angles ; and the same difference would be observed if it had been extended to embrace the whole of the original settling-lots. There were two causes for this. . First, the great highway between Boston and Albany ran through East and "West streets. But secondly, and chiefly, it arose from the mode in which the lots were originally laid out. There were, it will be recollected, three tiers of hundredacre farms, lying side by side and extending from the east to the through the center of the township. One of these tiers reached the whole length of the town, while that north of it fell a mile and a half short of the Dalton border, and that upon the south something more than two miles short of the Hancock line; the three ranges being separated from each other by roads seven rods wide. They were also intersected by a road,seven rods wide, running nearly through the center of the township from north to south, and now known as North and South streets, and in the east and west parts by other roads. The extreme width of these joint proprietor with Colonel Wendell, and Edward Livingstone, of Pooutoosuc, died in 3872, of consumption, aged forty-one. He lies buried with his widow and several of his children on the eastern slope of Pontoosuc Hill in the Pitts - field cemetery; where his grave is marked by a large old-fashioned tombstone, bearing this exceedingly-apposite epitaph :

Passage source: The History of Pittsfield, (Berkshire County,) Massachusetts ... Comp. and Written, Under the General Direction of a Committee, published 1869.

But to return to the system of roads, in Pittsfield, which was distinguished for its regularity. The road from Lenox to Lanesboro, of which North and South streets were a part, extended through Pittsfield nearly in a straight line, passing through the present site of the high-school house, and over the hill north of Maplewood Institute, and that west of Pontoosuc Lake. East and West streets, as now, extended from a point half a mile east of the park, in a straight line to the Hancock borders. Owing to the swamp east of that point, the highway diverged thence south-east, through Water and Elm streets. These intersecting roads, practically only two, may be considered the trunk, or base, of the whole system. From North street, about half a mile north of Maplewood, a street turned a little to the north-west and passing near the present entrance of the cemetery, joined and continued through Otaneaque street; forming the avenue by which the people of the North woods, and several of the forge neighborhoods, reached the central village. Wahconah street was not yet opened. Farther north a road, crossing the outlet of Pontoosuc lake, wound along its west side. From South street, Honasada street - one of the originally-reserved roads - was actually opened eastward to the Dal ton line. Westward, there continued to be an unmade portion until the line reached a point near Oceola village, whence it was completed to the foot of the mountain. Beyond the river. South Mountain street wound along the base of the hill from which it takes its name. From Otaneaque street, to the western extension of Honasada street, three roads ran north and south crossing. West street. From West street, also ran Onota street, north to Seymour's iron forge. On West street again, east of the river, Mill street led south to Luce's mill. From Honasada street. Shearer's lane ran south along the east side of the farm which had heen owned by Colonel Williams ; and from the same street a road ran south and south-west, to " Eock mountain ;" now known as the Sikes district, famous for its very hard and peculiarly-stratified granular quartz.

Passage source: The History of Pittsfield, (Berkshire County,) Massachusetts ... Comp. and Written, Under the General Direction of a Committee, published 1869.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Pittsfield City - 9,043 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.